The Roof
by Yashee S
Summary: Did you miss him? A Sherlock script.


**Act I Scene I**

(There is a white noise around. A defeaning screech, followed by chaotic noises from every direction. A man appears to stand in front of us, and we can see his black overcoat flapping in the wind under the clear skies. The noise grows louder as a distinct footstep is heard among it. From ahead of the man in the overcoat, the door opens and someone walks into the scene. The noises disappear just as he stops)

 _Moriarty_ : So we meet again, Sherlock.

 _Sherlock_ : Do we?

 _Moriarty(smiling)_ : Ah yes, just a figment of imagination, you'd say. I don't scare you anymore, do I?

 _Sherlock_ : You never did.

 _Moriarty_ : That's rather harsh, isn't it?

( _Moriarty_ steps up)

 _Moriarty_ : And yet we are here. Another of your dreams. What was it this time? Opium? Cocaine? Or death? Oh, dear, do tell me you are dead.

( _Sherlock_ watches as Moriarty walks over to the edge. He is studying something near his foot)

 _Sherlock_ : Not yet.

 _Moriarty_ : But I am.

 _Sherlock_ : Yes.

 _Moriarty(sighing)_ : It's a sad thing, you know.

 _Sherlock_ : No.

 _Moriarty_ : Oh would you drop it? Would you drop the act? I am you. I am your crazy messed up way of your brain trying to tell you something. And we are here. And it's sad. (He kneels down and picks up something) You wonder it, too, sometimes, ahaha. Do you sit on your ol' lumpy chair and wonder in your ol' dumpy hat, if you're just that ... dumb?

 _Sherlock_ : That's rather harsh, isn't it?

 _Moriarty(looking into his eyes now):_ Is it? Are you really smart, Sherlock? C'mon, I know you're not the one to be modest. Don't disgust me with the act. Just answer the question. Are you smart?

 _Sherlock_ : It really doesn't suit you to be pedantic. I defeated your plan — each of them. I fancy you have the answer.

 _Moriarty_ : Then why are we here? Where are we, Sherlock?

(The camera zooms out and we can see the both men standing on the roof. The wind howls louder as _Sherlock_ looks around. _Moriarty_ starts walking around him)

 _Sherlock_ : You want me to shake hands with you in hell? I shall not disappoint you.

 _Moriarty_ : You say your mind is a hard drive, don't you? Then why am I still here? Why are you still here? On the roof? After all this time.

 _Sherlock_ : I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them.

 _Moriarty_ : You still see me.

 _Sherlock_ : Because I am prepared to do anything. Prepared to do what ordinary people won't do.

 _Moriarty_ : And why? Why am I here, Sherlock?

( _Moriarty_ puts a gun in his mouth. There's a gun shot, and _Sherlock_ staggers back. As the gun echoes, he opens his eyes)

 _Moriarty_ : What are you missing?

( _Moriarty_ puts the gun in his mouth. There's a gun-shot)

 _Moriarty_ : Why won't you delete me?

( _Moriarty_ puts the gun in his mouth. There's a gunshot. The scene blacks out)

 **Act I Scene II**

( _Sherlock_ sits up breathing heavily on his apartment floor. A heavy sound echoes silently through the room. A construction site moans in the background. There's a knock on the door.

 _Sherlock_ stands up and heads over to the kitchen. There's a click and the door opens)

 _John_ : Sherlock? Blimey, just look at this place for god's sake. It would be nice of you to keep the place up, at least. Or just to answer the door once in a while. It's a bloody shock that I didn't find you unconscious on the floor.

 _Sherlock_ : Don't be silly, John, I don't pass out on the floor. As for the door, you have a key, use it. The tea's boiling, get a cup for yourself.

 _John_ : You made tea? Am I dreaming?

( _Sherlock_ stops in his tracks. His eyes dart around the room discreetly)

 _Sherlock(slowly):_ I don't think so.

 _John_ : Are you alright, Sherlock?

 _Sherlock_ : Yes. That's a silly question. Get your coat, we have to go.

 _John_ : Go? Where?

( _Sherlock_ peeps behind the curtains. A boy rattles on his bicycle. The construction site groans for the last time and then stops)

 _Sherlock_ : Where it started. We have been dumb, John. All this time. (Sherlock smiles as he walks over to the door) Moriarty's alive.

 **[Theme song plays]**

 **Act II Scene I**

(The camera's shaking. We can hear the wailing of an ambulance in the background. There's a voice talking, 'Stay with us,' is all we can hear in the blur of lights. 'Lestrade!' he screams. And the scene blacks out.

 _Sherlock_ opens his eyes, and finds himself in the lab. The door opens, and Inspector _Lestrade_ enters the lab. _Sherlock_ is behind the microscope, now, and _John_ is fiddling with his phone)

 _Greg_ : Is he serious?

 _John (shrugging):_ He hasn't said anything about it, yet.

 _Sherlock_ : I have worked with you for how many years, now, Lestrade? And how many times have I ever been 'not' serious.

 _Greg_ : Well, that's a tough one, let's see — there was the time when you called me for your best-man's speech in the middle of a heist. There's the time you couldn't find your phone in the jacket you were wearing. Then there's that for the awkward man who ran away just as I entered. By the way, are you ever going to tell me about it?

 _Sherlock_ : _Exceptio probat regulum_. Exception proves the existence of a rule.

 _Greg_ : You speak Latin?

 _Sherlock(still looking into the microscope):_ It seems so.

 _Greg_ : Well?

 _Sherlock_ : Have I ever told you that a cluttered brain is useless?

 _John_ : Today? No. ( _Lestrade_ coughs his chuckle)

 _Sherlock_ : How'd the court go? Did they hang Adams?

 _Greg_ : How did you —? The details haven't even been released yet.

 _Sherlock_ : You're wearing your brown leather shoes. You have exactly three pairs of shoes. One of your favourite's been worn out of use. But you will always wear it while you are solving an interesting case. Point in case, you are done. The leather has been polished — an official gathering. Your shirt has been collared, your head's especially combed — you wanted to present yourself. You have done that exactly nineteen times in the past year. Three of them were for personal lunches, one for the date that I had said would go bad — by the way, how's Angela? — and the other fifteen for court trials. By the look of the charts of the cases you have solved — believe me there are not many — the Adams case must be next. Now even though everyone believes that Jim is the killer, you specifically don't, because you know that the chalk on his pocket didn't put him in the rain for at least three days. Yet you haven't given a press release, because you wanted him to believe that you're on his side. You knew that scaring him would screw the plan. So court it was. You're smiling, but there's a sidebar of you looking around. You know that Adams was a dangerous man. You got him.

 _Greg_ : And that's just from my bloody shoes?!

 _Sherlock_ : An organised mind, you see, always knows the correct manipulation of useful information.

 _Greg_ : Oh no, you're totally right. The number of shoes I have is totally useful.

 _Sherlock (standing up):_ And yet I remember Moriarty. Does that sound strange?

 _Greg_ : So the fact that you can remember your arch nemesis, who killed himself in front of you by the way, means that he is alive.

 _Sherlock_ : Exactly.

 **Act II Scene II**

(The trio stands on the roof of the building. _Sherlock_ looks down. A ringing sound companies itself in the background)

 _Sherlock_ : Now, this time, really think about it, John. The arch villain of the world, who has lived with only one purpose in his life — to conquer the world, to watch it burn — suddenly decides that he is done. Does that sound like —

( _Sherlock_ stops and looks around)

 _John_ : Sherlock?

 _Sherlock_ : How did we get —

 _Greg_ : Are you alright?

 _Sherlock_ : We were in the —

 _John_ : Stay with us, Sherlock. It's going to be fine.

 _Sherlock_ : There's nothing wrong with me.

 _Greg_ : Whatever you say, Sherlock, but you did see him kill himself, didn't you? You said that. You said, that he put the gun in his mouth.

 _Sherlock_ : Very well, yes.

 _Greg_ : And you said that he pulled the trigger.

 _Sherlock_ : Indeed.

 _Greg_ : You heard the gun shot.

 _Sherlock_ : Very good.

 _Greg_ : And you saw his bloody body.

 _Sherlock_ : Aha! Exactly. You see it, too, don't you? I'm impressed.

 _John_ : Impressed that he knows that Moriarty is dead?

 _Sherlock (sighs):_ So you see, but you don't observe. It's a rather common mistake. I saw him pull the trigger, yes. And then I saw the body. But don't you see what I never saw? The flash! I never saw the bullet, Lestrade!

 _Greg_ : Are you going crazy, Sherlock?

 _Sherlock_ : You think I am making this up? I can look at you and tell every corner of London you have turned this morning. I can study the footsteps and tell you the exact height of the person who skipped the second stair to this building. Do you think a madman would have the congitive capabilities to say that?

 _John_ : Calm down, alright?

 _Greg_ : We just worry about you. Just, just don't move — and give me your gun.

(The camera zooms out and we can see _Sherlock_ holding his gun. Greg moves forward, his own gun out of his belt)

 _Sherlock_ : Well, believe it now.

( _Sherlock_ puts the gun in his mouth. There's a gunshot)

 **Act II Scene III**

(We are back 221B Baker Street. _Sherlock_ is looking out the window as _Lestrade_ barges inside, throwing the door open)

 _Greg_ : You are out of your mind.

 _John_ : Let's keep it down, Lestrade.

 _Greg_ : He tried to kill himself!

 _Sherlock_ : And yet you see me, here. I didn't try to kill myself.

 _Greg_ : Well, what's your point?

 _Sherlock_ : A blood patch, Lestrade. A blank shot, and a blood patch at the back of my head. Did you see that?

 _Greg_ : No.

 _Sherlock_ : Why? Don't answer that, you'll spoil it.

( _Sherlock_ takes out a device from his coat, and tosses it across the room. _Watson_ catches it)

 _John_ : A laser light?

 _Sherlock_ : Jim Moriarty was right, Watson. I do want everything to be clever. The only thing that he didn't want me to see was the bullet, and the blood actually spraying off. He used that to blind me.

 _Greg_ : So you mean—

 _Sherlock_ : That I'm making this up.

 _John_ : Wait, what?

 _Sherlock_ : Why are you here, Lestrade?

 _Greg_ : What do you mean to say?

 _Sherlock_ : This morning, I never called you. Yet you are here, in our apartment.

 _Greg_ : John called me.

 _Sherlock_ : Ah yes, that's a simple solution. But why are we here? We were on the roof, just a moment ago. We didn't take a cab back. But we are here.

 _John_ : Do you mean to say that you can't remember us taking the cab back?

 _Sherlock (slowly as he pushes away the curtains):_ Clever. I don't remember it, because it never happened. When I deduced the Adam's case this morning, you said that the details weren't released. Then how did I know about the chalk on the pocket?

 _Greg_ : How do you know anything?

 _Sherlock_ : No, you didn't even ask me about that. We have identical information. (There's a ring in the background) The bicycle, don't you hear it John? It's been following us. A memory in loop.

 _John_ : Sherlock, are you all right?

 _Sherlock_ : And you have been repeating that. My mind is making it up. I am making it all up. ( _Sherlock_ picks up the gun from the stool beside him) And the gun. It has all happened before. I am living the same dream. And so you know what I am going to do Watson, don't you? The only way to beat it is to do something that it knows I would never do.

( _Sherlock_ points it at John)

 _Greg_ : Whoa, whoa, Sherlock, if this is another of your cheap tricks, God help me ...

 _John_ : Sherlock, put the gun down. We can talk and figure everything out. Just keep the gun down.

( _Greg_ aims at Sherlock, as _Sherlock_ pulls the hammer of the gun)

 _Greg_ : Sherlock, this is your last chance. Put the gun down! You're a genius, alright. But you're not crazy. Put the damn gun down!

 _Sherlock_ : I do many things. ( _Sherlock_ turns, tilting his head:) And yet you trust me. You haven't pulled the trigger.

 _Greg_ : Well, that's rather harsh, isn't it?

 _Sherlock_ : Why did you say that?

 _Greg_ : Say what?

( _Sherlock_ breaths heavily, for a moment his vision blurs. He points his gun at _Lestrade_ and pulls the trigger. The gunshot ricochets around the apartment as Inspector _Lestrade_ falls down on the floor, blood oozing out of his head)

 _John_ : Sherlock! (He runs to _Lestrade's_ side, as Sherlock staggers back, the gun drops to the floor)

 _Sherlock_ : I-I

(The wailing ambulance noise is defeaning now. 'Lestrade!' screams Watson's voice. Sherlock looks back out of the window. The boy with bicycle has stopped, and is looking up at the apartment. _Sherlock_ turns and he can see it. The body of _Moriarty_ lying on the floor of his apartment. Sherlock collapses. Scene blacks out)

 **Act III Scene I**

(The door flies open as a crowd of people push a stretcher through it. The hospital corridor is dark, and the only source of light is the door. The faces of the crowd are shadowed and among the commotion a nurse desperately reads out the vitals. The camera shakes as they enter and we switch to _Sherlock's_ blurry vision on the stretcher)

 _John_ : Lestrade! Don't lose your calm. We need you, alright? (to _Sherlock_ :) Stay with us. We are almost there.

( _John_ turns to the surgeon, and they hurriedly talk)

 _Surgeon_ : He's still bleeding. It looks like the bullet hit a vessel. We need to take him to the OR. We have to ask you to stand outside for now, sir.

(They pass another door, but _John_ and _Lestrade_ stay behind. The _surgeon_ is talking to his staff. They transfer him to the operation table)

 _Surgeon_ : We'll not let you die. Can you hear that? Blink once.

( _Sherlock_ blinks, groaning as he does)

 _Surgeon_ : Very well, it would have been boring, otherwise. (He takes off his hospital mask) Did you miss me, Sherlock?


End file.
